1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a karaoke playback apparatus and system in which sound of an accompaniment of a karaoke musical piece is output from a speaker and, at the same time, the text of the lyrics of the musical piece is displayed in synchronism with the progress of the accompaniment on a monitor along with appropriate background images prepared and stored separately from the sound and lyrics data. In particular, the present invention relates to a karaoke playback apparatus and system utilizing a digital multi-channel broadcasting medium such as a digital multi-channel satellite television broadcasting.
2. Description of the Related Art
The most popular communication karaoke system in recent years is the musical-piece/image separate system as is generally known, in which background images separately prepared and stored are subsequently added. Specifically, the sound of an accompaniment of a karaoke musical piece and the lyrics text of the musical piece as well as karaoke data including information for synchronizing the sound and the text are stored in and played back by a system separated from a system for storing and playing back video data serving as a background of a display of the lyrics text. When a requested piece of music is played back, background images which fit the mood and the atmosphere of the music are displayed on a monitor.
Background images are not prepared for a specific piece of music. Instead, a number of background images are classified by types of melody such as Japanese popular ballads, pops and rock `n` roll. When a piece of music classified as a Japanese popular ballad is played back, for example, one piece of image data properly selected from among a plurality of images pertaining to Japanese popular ballads is played back to accompany the music. As an alternative, a number of short image-data pieces pertaining to Japanese popular ballads selected at random are concatenated. In this way, a very small amount of image data can be appropriately used for a number of musical pieces. As a result, the system can easily keep up with new songs introduced one after another, reducing the load of producing new image data for those songs.
Like enjoying music video or background video images, it is a big factor in enjoying karaoke to watch images displayed as a background of the lyrics text of a piece of music. In an expensive and very large karaoke playback apparatus using an optical disk for recording pieces of music and background image data for each musical piece, when a requested music is played back, specific images prepared for the music are always displayed. In the case of a karaoke playback apparatus of the musical-piece/image separate system, on the other hand, the reproduced images vary from time to time even if the same piece of music is played back. For a regular customer of karaoke, the latter apparatus is better in that a variety of background images are enjoyable. It is regarded as one of merits offered by the musical-piece/image separate system.
In the conventional communication karaoke system, the musical-piece/image separate system is adopted with the intention of reducing the burden of the image-software production and decreasing the size of the image storing/playback system employed in a karaoke playback terminal. The communication karaoke system has been welcomed since new hit songs are readily available after their release. However, quality of the background video software as entertainment is not considered satisfying. For example, a regular karaoke customer who frequently sings new pop songs will be aware that the background images result from repeated random combination of images of the same group, and get tired of the images soon.